Secure In The Father’s Love

I have loved you even as the Father has loved me.   John 15:9

Jesus offers to bring us into the love of the Father, the love he has experienced since before the world began (see John 17:24).

It’s the special work of the Holy Spirit to let us know that we’re loved by the Father by pouring out the love of God into our hearts (see Romans 5:5). Love is not something we believe; it’s something we experience. It’s a wonderful gift to be enjoyed!

This is a sensitive issue for some people. I was privileged to be raised in a happy family, and I thank God for a loving father. The security and love I knew makes me sensitive to the pain of those who did not know that privilege.

Folks whose experience of family life has been painful sometimes say that talking about God as Father is unhelpful and misleading. If that’s how you feel, I have a question for you: How do you know your relationship with your father was bad?

You know because God has placed within your heart a sense of what a father should be. The very fact that you can identify your disappointment is an indication that you have a sense of what ought to be. God put that there.

Christ has come to bring you into a relationship in which you know the unfathomable love of God the Father for his children. Christ will bring you into the family of God as a wanted, loved, and welcomed child. The Holy Spirit will bond you to the Father so that you know you are secure in his love.

This kind of assurance does not always come immediately in the Christian life. Paul regularly prayed that Christians would experience more of God’s love (see Ephesians 3:18-19). Sometimes our pain numbs us to the warmth of God’s love for a time. But don’t settle for anything less. Believe God’s promises. Ask the Holy Spirit to pour out the Father’s love in your heart. Go on asking; you will receive.

For further reading, see Ephesians 3